50 Fun Facts About Hermes

Hermes is best known as the herald and what of the gods?

His winged sandals let him move freely between the mortal and divine worlds and down to the underworld.

Hermes is the son of Zeus and which of the Pleiades?

The eldest of the seven sisters, daughters of Atlas; Zeus visited her secretly in a cave on Mount Cyllene.

According to some myths, Hermes was born on which mountain in Arcadia?

His epithet Cyllenian recalls it; the nymphs washed the newborn in the three springs of the Tricrena mountains nearby.

On his first day, the infant Hermes crawled off to Thessaly and stole what from Apollo?

The Homeric Hymn to Hermes tells the story; the two eventually swapped the herd for a new instrument.

The infant Hermes invented the lyre from what?

Apollo accepted the lyre in exchange for his stolen cattle, and it became one of Apollo's own emblems.

The Homeric Hymn calls Hermes 'polytropos', a word later applied to which descendant in the Odyssey's first line?

It means 'of many shifts' or 'much wandering'; Hermes was Odysseus's great-grandfather through the thief Autolycus.

Hermes' role as guide of souls to the afterlife makes him a what?

His image was commonly carved on gravestones in classical Greece, and he led the souls of Penelope's slain suitors to Hades.

Hermes' main symbol, a winged staff entwined with two snakes, is called what?

It could send people to sleep or wake them, and made peace between litigants.

Hermes' two-snake staff is often confused with the single-snake staff of which god of medicine?

The Rod of Asclepius is the true medical emblem; the US Army Medical Corps adopted the caduceus in 1902 at one officer's insistence.

The two-snake staff is documented among which ancient people from about 3500 BC, long before Hermes?

It was a symbol of the Mesopotamian mediator-god Ningishzida, whom some scholars see as a forerunner of Hermes.

The wide-brimmed traveller's hat worn by Hermes, later given small wings, is called what?

Rural people wore it against the sun; in some images the wings sprout straight from Hermes' hair instead.

Hermes' winged sandals are known by which Latin name?

The Greeks called them pédila; they were said to be golden and immortal, made of palm and myrtle, and originally had no wings at all.

Hermes' curved sword, the harpe, was lent to which hero to kill Medusa?

Hermes also gave him the talaria, petasos and helm of darkness for the mission.

Hermes' epithet Argeïphontes recalls his slaying of Argus Panoptes, a giant with how many eyes?

Argus was guarding the heifer-nymph Io for Hera; Hermes charmed him to sleep with the caduceus before killing him.

After Argus was slain, Hera set his eyes into the tail of which bird?

The peacock remained a symbol of Hera ever after.

Most scholars derive the name Hermes from the Greek 'herma', meaning what?

Travellers added a stone to wayside cairns sacred to the god; the linguist Beekes prefers a Pre-Greek origin.

The Athenian herms, square pillars topped with a bust of Hermes, also featured what beneath?

Hipparchus set them up in the 6th century BC as midway markers between villages; households kept them by their doors for protection and fertility.

In 415 BC all the herms of Athens were vandalised on the eve of which military expedition?

Alcibiades was suspected, and one charge that later doomed Socrates was failing to steer his pupil away from such corruption.

In Archaic Greek art Hermes was usually shown how, unlike his later beardless athletic image?

The bearded type lingered on the herms; Praxiteles carved him young, holding the baby Dionysus.

Praxiteles' Hermes and the Infant Dionysus was discovered in 1877 in the ruins of which sanctuary?

It is displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Olympia and has shaped our idea of Praxitelean style.

Depictions of Hermes 'kriophoros' show him carrying what on his shoulders?

He was said to have saved a Boeotian town from plague by carrying a ram round its walls; the image may have influenced Christ as 'the Good Shepherd'.

How many temples in Classical Greece, all in Arcadia, are known to have been dedicated to Hermes?

Elsewhere he was worshipped in the sanctuaries of goddesses, and via the herms that stood on every corner.

The earliest written record of Hermes appears in which Bronze Age script?

Tablets from Pylos, Thebes and Knossos render his name as e-ma-a, always alongside goddesses.

By a widely accepted theory, Hermes originated as a form of which rustic god, later said to be his son?

Both descend from a Proto-Indo-European pastoral god; Pan kept his own name only in isolated Arcadia.

Hermes' festival, celebrated with athletics and gymnastics, was called what?

Participation was restricted to young boys, making it the most initiation-like of the Greek games.

In Hesiod's Works and Days, what did Hermes give to Pandora?

Every god contributed a gift to the woman created to punish humanity for Prometheus's theft of fire.

In the Odyssey, Hermes tells the hero to chew a magic herb to protect himself from which sorceress?

He also carried Zeus's order to Calypso to release Odysseus from her island.

In the Iliad, Hermes escorts which Trojan king safely into the Greek camp to ransom his son's body?

Hermes was an ally of the Greeks but guided Priam to Achilles' tent and back to Troy with Hector's body.

Which god did Hermes free from the bronze jar where the giants Otus and Ephialtes held him?

The twin Aloadae giants had held the war god captive for thirteen months.

Hermes' son with Aphrodite, later merged with the nymph Salmacis into one being, was named what?

Ovid tells how Salmacis prayed never to be parted from the beautiful boy and got her wish.

Hermes' son by Chione, the 'Prince of Thieves' and grandfather of Odysseus, was called what?

He got his skill from sacrificing to Hermes as his patron.

Which couple first raised the baby Dionysus, before Hermes handed him to the Nysan nymphs?

The nymphs later became the Hyades; Hermes also led Hera, Athena and Aphrodite to Paris for the fateful beauty contest.

The Roman name Mercury derives from the Latin 'merx', meaning what?

The same root gives 'merchant' and 'commerce'; St Augustine preferred 'medio currens', running in the middle.

The Romans blended Hermes with which earlier Etruscan god to make Mercury?

The winged cap in Roman art comes from Etruscan depictions of Turms.

The Romans identified Mercury with which Germanic god, as preserved in 'Wednesday'?

Both carry a staff, wear a wide-brimmed hat, wander, and are linked to the dead and to secret knowledge; French keeps 'mercredi'.

Mercury's temple in Rome, built in 495 BC, stood in which venue?

It lay between the Aventine and Palatine hills; Mercury was among the most popular gods at Pompeii.

Which Egyptian god did Ptolemaic Greeks identify with Hermes, worshipped at Hermopolis?

The pairing gave Hermes a new role as god of knowledge, translation and secret wisdom.

The title Trismegistus, given to the god in his Egyptian-Greek form, means what?

It came from an epithet of Thoth, 'the great, the great, the great', and became central to Hermeticism and alchemy.

The Roman-era hybrid deity Hermanubis combined Hermes with which jackal-headed Egyptian god?

Both were psychopomps; Hermanubis was shown with a jackal's head holding a caduceus.

Which fifth-century BC historian was the first to identify the Greek Hermes with the Egyptian Thoth?

Plato disagreed and thought the two gods dissimilar.

Some medieval Christians saw a mortal Hermes Trismegistus as a pagan prophet contemporary with which biblical figure?

Others placed him third in a line of prophets after Enoch and Noah; the Suda even claimed he had praised the Trinity.

Which number was among Hermes' symbols, along with the rooster, tortoise, palm tree and goat?

He was also associated with several kinds of fish and with incense.

Hermes is described as which of the Olympians, suggesting he was a late addition to the pantheon?

His original role was probably chthonic; the cattle-theft myth marks his first contact with the celestial gods.

Hermes's sandals were said to be made from the branches of which two plants?

Originally they had no wings; those appeared only in later artistic representations.

Which flower sprang from the blood of Crocus, a youth Hermes accidentally killed with a discus?

Crocus was said to be a beloved of the god who stood up unexpectedly during the game.

In Aeschylus's Eumenides, Hermes helps which hero kill Clytemnestra under a false identity?

Aeschylus also called him the god of searches, for those seeking things lost or stolen.

According to Apollodorus, which three goddesses did Hermes lead to Paris for a beauty contest?

He also gave the young Heracles a sword when he finished his education.

Which of Aesop's fables is one of the most notable to feature Hermes?

Aesop also said Hermes assigned each person his share of intelligence.

Hermes gave his lover Amphion a golden version of which instrument, making him a great musician?

Hermes also gifted his lover Polydeuces the Thessalian horse Dotor.

The 'thrice-greatest' epithet behind Hermes Trismegistus was borrowed from Thoth's title in which temple?

It was applied to Hermes from at least 172 BC and later fed into Hermeticism and alchemy.